


I Was Fighting Back

by elliotdilaurentis99



Category: Mr. Robot (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Conversations, F/M, FC: Daniela Ruah (from NCIS LA) as the original female character., Heart-to-Heart, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Male-Female Friendship, Past Child Abuse, Pep Talk, mention of violence, takes place during 4x08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:28:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23683159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliotdilaurentis99/pseuds/elliotdilaurentis99
Summary: After his trip to the Queens museum, Elliot ends up meeting a woman who herself is a survivor of a stalking incident and domestic abuse and almost died in a brutal attack by her stalker/abuser. They both open up about there struggle and the woman gives a pep talk to Elliot before he goes to complete his code for the hack, which he is now unsure about.Daniela Ruah as Cassandra Schaffer
Relationships: Elliot Alderson/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	I Was Fighting Back

After his trip to the Queens Museum, Elliot went to the Coney Island beach and lied down on the porch, looking up at the stars while staring at his old bedroom key on his hand. He keeps on thinking about the fact that even if he fought back against his father's abuse, was it even worth it? What it would've been like if he went back in time and tried to stop the abuse completely, that means Mr. Robot wouldn't have existed and he wouldn't be himself. But he knows that he can't go back in time.

And now he has taken full responsibility to take down Whiterose and what if almost everything that he put himself and others through ended up being nothing for him because his father was nothing but a predatory monster who ruined his life.

"Hey, you okay down there?" a soft female voice asks him, Elliot turns and sees a black haired woman in a black oversized sweatshirt tucked in her long blue denim skirt and she is wearing a sling bag.

He gets up as she tells him "I was just going for a stroll, I am so sorry, but I couldn't help but notice that you were lying down alone on the porch. I was just here to check on you." 

Elliot responds, "I am fine." The woman reads him quickly from his tired and worn out state as she tells him "Really? You don't look that okay right now." 

She gently asks him "Mind if I join you for a minute? Do you want to talk about it?"

Elliot replies "Sure" and moves aside for her to sit. The woman sits next to him and introduces herself "By the way, I am Cassandra." 

"Elliot"

She pulls out a thermos from her bag and says "I packed some brandy in this. Cold weather." She removes a cup from the bag.

Cassandra asks him "Do you want some? I feel like that might help." Elliot nods and she pours a cup of brandy for him.

Both of them take a sip as Elliot asks "Have you ever had any bad memories in your life that you wished to forget? That you tried so hard to lock it away from remembering it?"

Cassandra takes a long pause as she asks him "Is there something that happened to you in the past that you wanted to forget?"

Elliot turns to her and gives her a long look as she apologises "I am sorry. I didn't mean to ask you like that. If you don't want to talk about your trauma, it's okay."

Elliot responds as he pours another brandy for himself and says "It's ok. Besides it was forcibly ripped away from me, now it's no use repressing it anymore."

He drinks it quickly as he starts "Today, I just found out that my dad, who I thought was my best friend for years." He takes a deep breath as he continues, "He isn't."

Cassandra listens as he continues "I had a childhood trauma forced out of me. Something which shouldn't have been done by a psycho's help. My dad, he did some horrible things to me when I was a kid. I just feel like I should've stopped it. I just keep on thinking what if I could've stopped him. And what if I could've stopped that psycho stalker from even trying to hurt me and my therapist. I shouldn't have gotten addicted to Suboxone then none of this wouldn't have happened. I just feel like I have a knack for attracting psychotic assholes wherever I go. And I blame myself, I blame almost every bad decision I made. I thought I was trying to do a good thing for my father. But now, I don't think it's worth it anymore. I did this to myself. Wherever I go, anyone ends up going after me and because of me, they end up hurting the ones I love. I even caused pain to someone today as well and I think this is my punishment. I deserved it."

Cassandra stares at him with pity and concern. She puts her hand on his shoulder and tells him, "I understand what you are going through. I don't know if it's almost like what happened to you but it happened to me as well."

Cassandra starts her story "I was born in Portugal and then studied in Paris for 4 years before I moved here 5 years ago to complete my Masters and finally got a job here as a journalist. 3 years ago, I had gone through a lot of pressure with my job and relationships because of my depression and anxiety. So I visited my aunt who is also a therapist like yours and she prescribed me Prozac."

"But when the pressure increased and I was running out of drugs, I ended up going to one guy who provided me with some, including the amphetamines."

Elliot begins to listen intently as Cassandra continues "Unfortunately, he took one look at me and ended up going after me for so many days. He made this excuse saying that fate told him that I was meant to be his bride. He began to send me text messages. Ended up parking outside of my apartment sometimes with his friends, sent me expensive gifts and at one time even broke into my apartment and stole my personal belongings as his memento. And he continued to follow me and refer to me as his "wife" despite knowing the fact that I was already seeing my ex-girlfriend that time. He and his friends even assaulted my male friend when he saw him with me."

Elliot asks her, "Then what happened?"

Cassandra continues, "There was this one time where he confessed to me that he loved me and then I blew up at him and called him a "psycho". Then all I remember is that he injected me with a sedative into my neck and then I got pulled into a van. Then I woke up and my hands were bound and my mouth was taped and some of his cronies ended up chuckling and I found out I was in an old warehouse and I was tied up on a chair. And that guy, he came up to me and he said that he and I are now together and nothing was going to come between us. He even texted my friends and family telling them where I was. He even ended up being extremely inappropriate and creepy with me and he tried to empathise with me."

Elliot gives a horrified reaction as she continues "Then one day when I tricked and seduced him into letting me go. I reached for the gun and shot him in the arm and then I ran off. Unfortunately he ended up grabbing me and we both struggled for the gun....until I heard a shot and then I felt an excruciating and burning pain in my stomach and my hands touched something wet. That's when I looked down and I realised I was shot. Then when I was about to pass out, last thing I remember was him looking down on me, smiling and saying "You should've loved me. Then you wouldn't end up like this."

Elliot quietly mumbles "Oh my god."

Cassandra then reaches to the ending as she continues "And then I woke up and found myself covered in dirt and blood. I dug myself out of the grave I was buried in and then I ran to the road and yelled at a driver for help before I fainted. I woke up in the hospital and I described my situation to the police. But unfortunately, due to the lack of evidence, they couldn't catch the guy."

Elliot asks her "But then knowing that he might be still out there. How are you able to move on with your life without fearing that he might get you again?"

Cassandra responds, "Because Elliot, at first I blamed myself for letting all this happen to me. I blamed my fucked up behaviour and my addiction to this whole situation. I felt like if I would've dealt with my issues better, none of this wouldn't have happened. But then I realised something, while I made some bad decisions, it was that guy's fault because he had a massive ego and was nothing but a creepy narcissist"

She raises her shirt and shows Elliot her scar, which is on the left side of her stomach, same as Elliot's, as she continues "Whenever I look at this, I think about what happened to me back then, it made me more stronger and braver and I wasn't going to let that incident define me as a person. And even if he did come back. I was going to make sure that he remembers that I am not that afraid little broken bird anymore."

She lowers her shirt and asks Elliot "What about you? Do you have any battle scars?"

Elliot replies "Yeah." He raises his hoodie and shows her his gunshot scar on his stomach, He tells her "I got that because I refused to be a part of something that I didn't want it to happen."

He lowers his shirt as he tells her "I keep on thinking about the fact that no matter how much pain I went through, was it even worth it? Even of I managed to fight back, I don't know if I will get through it. I made so many bad decisions. I don't know what I am. And how will my sister react when she finds out? She's already lost so many people in her life. I don't think she will believe me when I tell her this."

Cassandra advises him "I know this may sound cliched. I don't if you are a fighter, but what I know is you are a survivor. You shouldn't let what your dad and many of those assholes define you as a person. From what I know is that you are an amazing, smart and kind person with flaws. And no matter what you tell your sister, I believe she will believe you because she loves you no matter what. And if you are not able to deal with it that much, just don't throw yourself into your work immediately, just take time for yourself and clear your thoughts, before you go ahead."

Elliot gets up as he tells her "I gotta go."

Before he leaves, Cassandra stops him and tells him "In case you can't deal with it alone," she pulls out a card and gives him. It reads: CSA/DOMESTIC ABUSE SUPPORT GROUP.

She tells him, "My brother-in-law set up a support group for CSA and Domestic Abuse survivors. It helped me a lot and I thought you might need it."

Elliot tells her thank you and she nods.

Elliot leaves as Cassandra stays at the porch, staring into the night drinking her brandy.

Cassandra walks on the street as she heads towards her aunt's house. But as soon as she reaches there, she sees the police and medics standing outside. She even sees a body bag being loaded into the van, which horrifies her as she runs towards the crime scene. The cop stops her from going forward "Ma'am, I need you to stay back. This is a crime scene."

Cassandra shakily asks him "But I need to know what happened. That's my aunt Krista's house!. Whose body was that?"

She hears someone call out for her "Cassandra!"

She turns around and sees her aunt: Krista, alive and well, but shaken. She runs to her and hugs her.

"Oh thank god, you are okay." She pulls away from the hug and asks her "What happened?"

Krista responds "Some sadistic fuck just broken into my house and tried to threaten me and one of my patients. He just psychologically broke him and I killed him. I think the rest of his group just ran off."

Cassandra asks her "But are you okay now?" 

Krista responds,"Yeah, I think so."

Cassandra then suddenly remembers her conversation with Elliot, he said something similar to what her aunt Krista said.

She asks her "Aunt Krista, the patient you were talking about right now that you said was put through psychological torture? What's his name?"

Krista answers, "Elliot."

Cassandra ends up in shock as she realises that after he disposed her off, thinking that she was dead, he ended up going after her aunt and that poor guy, Elliot. That means she and Elliot had the same stalker. Who is now dead.

She asks her "Before he got to you and Elliot, was there anyone else he went after?"

Krista takes a long pause before she answers, "I don't know how many were there before us. But he went after Elliot's girlfriend, Shayla. He killed her."

Cassandra mutters "Oh my god." she sits on a staircase as she processes what she just heard.

Krista sits next to her and asks her "Cassandra, are you okay? What's wrong?"

Tears well up in her eyes as she begins to open up, "Aunt Krista, Remember 3 years ago when I went missing for about a week and then I was found with a stomach wound."

"Yeah."

"That was him. The one who attacked you, Elliot and that Shayla girl, he came after me before you guys."

Krista asks her "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

She responds "After the cops just pushed my claims against him away. It was better off to move on from this and just learn to live and survive the trauma. And now that I found out that he killed that woman and even ruined yours and Elliot's life, I blame myself for just letting him walk free." She begins to cry as she says "I am sorry, Aunt Krista.

Krista hugs her as she tells her, "This wasn't your fault, Cassie. I understand that you went through something extremely traumatic that you tried for so many years to distance yourself from. And now look at you, you are a strong fighter and survivor who is encouraging others to fight back and survive this. Don't let this affect who you are."

Cassandra mutters thank you to her and she pulls away from the hug and tells her "By the way. I met Elliot and I invited him to the support group that Patrick set up. Would it be okay?"

Krista smiles gently at her and strokes her hair as she says "It's ok. He really needs that right now to heal."


End file.
